BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 145 



extending the neck to full length unless on the wing. Their flight 

 was swift and direct, usually only a few feet above the sand, but 

 not infrequently, to avoid me, in a semicircle that carried them 

 over the dunes or out over the sea. 



They were difficult to kill at any great distance because of their 

 dense plumage and heavily muscled bodies. A female and two males 

 were shot on November 3, and a second female on the day that 

 followed. The nesting season was about at hand, and it is probable 

 that some had eggs at that season, as females shot were nearly ready 

 to lay. One male in mating ardor pursued a female in swift flight 

 that carried them turning and dodging over the dunes along the 

 beach until the birds were lost to sight. On November 15, at the 

 mouth of the Rio Ajo again, where several oyster catchers were 

 seen, one pair had a nest somewhere on a small strip of sandy beach. 

 I hid behind a clump of grass and watched from a distance, but 

 though the birds returned in a short time, I failed to locate either 

 eggs or young. 



At Ingeniero White, on December 13, an oyster catcher was eating 

 small crabs that it pursued quickly across the mud or secured by 

 pulling them out of holes sunk in the clay. Four oyster catchers 

 were recorded on the coast near Montevideo, Uruguay, on January 

 16, 1921, and several noted on the sandy beach at La Paloma, Rocha, 

 on January 23, may have had young, as they circled past me with 

 shrill whistles. The species is known locally as teru de la costa. 



An adult female shot November 3 had the center of the bill be- 

 tween scarlet red and jasper red, shading at base to a color between 

 bittersweet orange and flame scarlet, and at extreme tip to anti- 

 mony yellow; bare eyelids slightly darker than orange chrome; iris 

 cadmium yellow; tarsus and toes cartridge buff; nails buff. 



The specimens taken, which have been placed in Doctor Murphy's 

 hands for study, are assumed to be the subspecies duinfordi of 

 Sharpe, but definite allocation is delayed pending his forthcoming 

 revision. 



Family PHALAROPODIDAE 



STEGANOPUS TKICOLOR VieiUot 



Steganopus tiHcolor Vieuxot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 32, 1819, p. 136. 

 (Paraguay.) 



Wilson's phalarope was recorded first at the mouth of the Rio 

 Ajo below Lavalle, Buenos Aires, on November 15, 1920, when four 

 were seen feeding on a mud bank. Later a flock of a dozen circled 

 past with soft honking calls and a female in full winter plumage 

 was taken. At Carhue, Buenos Aires, 40 were recorded December 

 15 in company with les.ser yellowlegs on mud bars in a brackish 

 water marsh behind a fringe of rushes that bordered Lake Epiquen, 



